Redemption
by Light Derived from Darkness
Summary: Tragedy strikes just as the Christmas season is beginning to blossom when a car accident leaves Kitty with little chance of ever walking again. But Lance isn't ready to give up on her yet, nor the fact that a holiday miracle may heal her.
1. The Accident

**Summary:** Tragedy strikes just as the Christmas season begins to blossom when a car accident leaves Kitty with little chance of ever walking again. But Lance isn't ready to give up hope and helps her through the seemingly endless therapy and treatment needed for her to try and escape being confined to a wheelchair the rest of her life. What occurs is a strengthening in their relationship that neither could have ever imagined possible given their tremelous pasts together.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own X-Men Evolution or anything in association to it.

It was snowing lightly, blanketing all of Bayville beneath a shimmering layer of the frozen matter. Trees aligned the barren streets laden with Christmas lights and sparkling ornaments, signaling the nearing holiday that had calmed the suburbs and shifted all the activity into the heart of the city, where shoppers were hoping to get some last minute gifts and trinkets with only a week left until Christmas day would finally dawn upon the small city.

The streets were slippery this night as the snow transformed into thick ice upon the pavement with the subzero temperatures, which was the exact reason why Jean was driving so slowly down the residential road. Kitty sat beside her in the passenger seat, flipping through a magazine picking out various gifts for his friends and family as she hummed a melody to herself. They themselves had just been on a buying frenzy, though unable to find much of anything in the wake of earlier customers, and they had left all but empty-handed from the crowded downtown mall. Jean turned up the radio in order to shut out the annoying sound of the windshield wipers and readjusted the spirited sprig of mistletoe that Scott had hung earlier from her rearview mirror.

"So Jean, what did you like get for Scott?" Kitty suddenly inquired with a cheerful smirk, now sifting through an instrumental catalogue for something she could get for Lance to spruce up his guitar. Jean shrugged and brushed a few crimson follicles from her face, attempting to keep sight of the street dimly lit in her headlights while still trying to hold the casual conversation with Kitty.

"I got him a few different things. A new shirt and jeans from Old Navy that I thought he'd like, plus a new pair of sunglasses considering his old ones got cracked," Jean said, shuddering slightly in remembrance of the situation that had caused that to occur.

"I told Kurt not to throw that Frisbee around the Institute, but at least Mr. Logan made him run five laps around the Danger Room for not listening to the Professor's warnings," Kitty said, setting aside her growing list of needed items and leaning back onto the leather chair with a contented sigh, relishing slightly in the feeling of the upcoming holiday and allowing the subtle weariness to envelope her as well.

"What do you think you're going to get for Lance?" Jean said, wondering how Kitty's hunt for a suitable present had progressed thus far, and she too shrugged initially in response.

"Just like some small things for his guitar mostly. A new pack of guitar picks, a set of new strings, and a stand since he keeps complaining that those morons he lives with keep trampling it since it keeps sliding from the wall where he leaves it," she said with a tired sigh.

"I think he'll like those gifts; after all, playing the guitar does seem to be the only hobby you've ever seen him dedicated to right?" Jean asked, and Kitty nodded gently and tightened her small ponytail with a quick tug of her hands, sitting back up and looking out of her fogged window at some small children playing in a yard nearby. Several of them had formed a rough row across the span of the frigid ground, all of them commencing the traditional creation of a snow angel into the glistening crystals below, and she smiled warmly as they passed them.

"I remember when I used to do that constantly. My parents used to like tell me those angels could come to life if I made them and could protect me from all the monsters I saw in my nightmares and the other things I feared. Every time I thought of something frightening, I'd just go outside and make a new snow angel and know that that specific one would protect me from whatever I had become like scared of. Basically the whole yard would be filled up within a day of winter, but at least it made me feel a lot better when I would wake up from a nightmare and look down upon them, knowing that they would keep me safe," she said with another relaxed sigh, and Jean laughed softly at her reminiscing and admired a rather over-decorated house to her left, preparing to stop at an intersection that lied just before the turn-off that would lead them back to the Institute.

She came to a slow stop, knowing that her SUV could be notorious for skidding in bad weather such as this, and looked both ways to make sure nothing was coming. Since it was a four-way stop, she partially ignored the headlights to her right and began to coast forward slowly, smiling with the distant lights of the Institute all but concealed in the thick forest along the shoreline ahead.

Kitty was nearly blinded by the nearing headlights and rose one arm to try and shield herself from them, looking to see they were approaching at an alarming rate. But it wasn't until she let out a horrified scream that Jean turned and realized the oncoming car had lost control and was speeding towards them across the slick ice.

The van slammed into the right side of the SUV at fifty-two miles-per-hour only a second later, shoving it with such force that it slid down the pavement until it came to rest after wedging itself against an oak tree at a slowed rate of speed. The sounds of metal tearing apart and glass shattering echoed through the small neighborhood, echoing across the silence that seemed to have fall over the once lively world.

The children nearby that had been playing happily came to a halt, all of them staring at the accident with terrified and confused expressions as inside their frantic parents searched for a telephone and several rushed outside, running towards the accident in panic and horror.

One of the snow angels laying innocently in the yard suddenly vanished, buried silently beneath the thickening snowfall.


	2. Shattered Happiness

The Brotherhood house was unusually cheerful this year with the holiday spirit, with everyone attempting to brighten up the crumbling establish with homemade adornments and a starved pine tree that Lance had used his powers to uproot from the rigid ground near the house.

"That thing was an eyesore anyways; at least now we're putting it to good use," Wanda had said, watching as the small sapphire bulb she had string onto it dragged down the dead branch and it came to rest against the carpet below.

The smell of burnt gingerbread cookies filled the house swiftly with Fred's constant attempts to conjure up something festive for them to munch on in their celebratory preparations, though Pietro had rushed into the kitchen more than once brandishing a fire extinguisher, thinking that perhaps the massive mutant had finally managed to set the battered stove on fire.

"How come we weren't informed that we had one of those whenever St. John decided visit?" Lance grumbled as Pietro dragged the contraption back to the cluttered closet and tossed it in alongside the untouched vacuum cleaner and cleaning fluids.

At least they were trying this year; last year they had spent all of Christmas Eve sitting around the living room guzzling down countless sodas and feeling sick from the carbonation all night, and on Christmas snuck onto the Institute grounds and arranged all the Christmas lights that had been laid across the roof to spell 'Merry X-Mas X-Geeks' across the span of the vast yard in front of the school. But this year their minds seemed to have put aside any needs for revenge against their rivals and they instead tried to enjoy the holiday season.

Todd continued to stalk Wanda across the Brotherhood house, totting a small wisp of rather sorrowful mistletoe that looked like it had suffered one too many beatings from Wanda's hexing abilities alongside the lovesick mutant. He seemed more determined than ever to gain her attentions in this season when romance was supposed to temporarily peak, but so far it had only managed to cause several more indents in the walls that roughly fitted the shape of an inverted person.

Pietro rushed from the upstairs and down continuously carrying various boxes of once forgotten Christmas items, ornaments and rotten candy-canes that everyone watched in disgust as Fred ate the majority of them though they had spent several years in the attic. Lance pulled from one box the perfect tree topper, a cloth angel that held a songbook in her hands and would look down upon them from the highest point of the dying plant. Her eyes even lit up with an artificial heavenly light when plugged in. He cast it aside with the other decorations and clawed through the other various things within it.

Lance winced as he remembered when he had put up the Christmas lights around the Brotherhood house the previous day during a small snowstorm. He had been stringing on the last portion of lights when suddenly the ladder gave way to the ice and he found himself suspended twelve feet above the ground, only the string of lights holding him in the air. He had shouted continuously and let out some rather embarassing screams as his fear of heights rang clear, but the Brotherhood hadn't come out to his rescue until he'd driven his leg through a window to get their attentions.

He yelped when a rusty mousetrap suddenly closed itself around his unsuspecting hand, and Pietro arrived back only to recoil a bit at Lance's surfacing rage.

"Oops, sorry about that. Must've fallen in from when we had that rather nasty rat problem a few months ago," Pietro said as Lance pried the device from his hand and entered the kitchen to wash the small, jagged pieces of decaying metal from his flesh. Fred was stirring a batter of an unidentifiable substance he claimed would become a vanilla cake, though from the horrendous odor it was emitting Lance highly doubted that.

"What do you think Lance? I'm tryin' to make us a cake for after dinner tonight," Fred said, holding his strange concoction forward as Lance cringed and recoiled from it with a half-repressed look of disgust.

"I'm thinking that if you keep cooking like this, saying grace tonight will be as follows: 'Oh God, we thank thee for the instant noodles and 88 cents cookies from Walmart you have provided for us,'" Lance said, and Fred moped a little and turned away as he continued to stir.

Lance rinsed his hands and was drying them with a stained dishtowel when suddenly the kitchen phone began to ring, the sound piercing the calm quiet that had come over the Brotherhood house. Before Lance could even hope to reach it, Pietro rushed to the receiver and picked it up, shoving him away with a victorious grin.

"Helllo, Brotherhood house, Pietro speaking," he said systematically and swiftly into the phone, then prying it from his ear and handing it towards Lance, saying "It's for you," in a disgruntled tone.

Lance took it, expecting to hear Kitty's chirpy voice chattering to him as was typical in the evening, but instead, another voice came through the telephone, Professor Xavier speaking to him in an unnaturally quiet voice.

The others watched as first Lance's face distorted into a look of utter confusion, and then one of terror as he slumped on the edge of a kitchen counter to keep his balance, looking as though he was going to be sick, and then they watched as his eyes welled with tears he seemed unafraid to reveal to them.

Wanda approached him slowly, watching as he limply dropped the receiver to the floor and a voice continued to speak, calling to him as he stood there trembling slightly.

"Lance, what is it? What happened?" she asked, taking another step forwards and then halting as he broke down, falling to his knees onto the linoleum floor and clenching his face in his hands. The floor was suddenly flooded with unhindered tears as the Brotherhood listened and heard only one coherent word spoken in his weak, pained voice.

"..._Kitty_..."


	3. The Terrible News

He hated hospitals more than anything, the smell of medicine and fluids in the air, the sense of death and suffering, interrupted by the muffled screams of some patient being put through horrendous procedures to keep them alive. He passed a room where a person was having their blood drained into a packet hanging over their bed and felt nauseous, needing to lean on Pietro's shoulder in order to keep himself even barely composed. Pietro allowed him to with even the slightest argument, unable to comprehend how this must be affecting his friend. Her room was on the highest floor, so he kept away from the windows so the immense height wouldn't make him feel any worse than he did now, if that was even possible of course.

Professor Xavier had explained to him the most basic details of what had happened. Jean and Kitty had been coming home from shopping at the mall when a couple heading home as well lost control of their van and slammed into Jean's SUV only a quarter of a mile from the Institute. So close to coming back to the safety of their home and yet struck down just before reaching it. He still didn't know the specifics, only that Kitty was laying in critical condition in the next room and he was trapped outside waiting to hear on her condition.

The X-Men were all gathered there, sitting in between the rooms where Kitty laid in a comatose state and Jean, barely conscious, remained in serious condition after having lost a great amount of blood. He had actually found himself going to Scott for comfort without a second thought, considering the both of them were in the same situation with their loved ones both in danger of dying.

He was beyond tears now however, sitting in the armchair embracing his jacket tightly to vent his frustration and sadness. It had been seven long hours of night that had passed with Jean's injuries being treated and Kitty undergoing emergency surgery they hadn't even learned about until the procedure was halfway complete. The couple that had struck them were two floors down, both injured but their conditions not life-threatening. Professor Xavier had said it was at least one thing to be thankful for that they had escaped without serious harm. Lance felt like going down there and putting them into the same states that they had condemned Kitty and Jean to suffer.

The other members of the Brotherhood and X-Men paced the hallways aimlessly, sensing and feeling the same emotions of fear and sorrow and confusion. This was supposed to be a happy and joyful holiday, and yet they found themselves here, under an essential truce that allowed them to comfort one another and relate to their identical feelings without the slightest detection of the rivalry that had pitted them against one another for the past two years.

Finally an elderly doctor, who had been going back and forth between Jean and Kitty's hospital rooms, halted before them, and all the X-Men and Brotherhood gathered around him, attempting to read his solemn expression for signs of what had happened. He looked grave and pale, and they all immediately feared for the worst as was instinctive.

"Miss Jean Grey is going to make a full recovery we believe. She sustained a fracture to left arm, several broken ribs and some slight head trauma that caused the bleeding to occur, but she is reacting well to treatment and is beginning to regain consciousness with her injuries under control and monitoring now. We no longer believe that her life is in danger. As for Miss Kitty Pryde, she is still in a coma though she too has been stabilized and her vital signs are becoming stronger. But I am afraid that she has received some serious injuries since she was sitting on the side of the vehicle that suffered the impact of the van. She was lucky that there was relatively no damage done to her brain or other vital organs, but the base of her spinal cord was severed by the force of the momentum. In all honesty, I believe that she will never walk again due to this injury, and will be confined to a wheelchair the rest of her life," the doctor came to the subtle conclusion in a slow and strangled voice as he repressed his own sadness of the tragedy, and all the Brotherhood turned in unison, expecting to see Lance beginning to weep once more with the news of this.

But he didn't and instead he looked simply apathetic and monotone with the final statement, his expression unrevealing of the conflicting relief that she was alive to the utter sadness that she would never be able to walk again.

"I don't believe it," he suddenly proclaimed in an almost robotic voice, surprising everyone around him including the doctor.

"I realize the shock of this is incomprehensible Mr. Alvers, but even with the emergency surgery she has undergone to repair her spinal cord, it is highly unlikely that she will ever gain feeling in her legs again due to the nerve damage and weakness caused by the accident," the doctor concluded once again, trying to convince him it was indeed what was to happen, but he simply shook his head and continued to speak in a disquieting voice.

"I don't believe that there isn't any hope. I know Kitty and that she's not one to simply give up. There has to be _something_ that we can do," he said, and the doctor sighed and rubbed his forehead roughly, looking down upon the clipboard from which he had reported the various injuries of their loved ones.

"There are a few options that can be experimented with in the future, but for right now I think we should be concentrating on what can be done to keep their lives out of danger so their wounds are able to heal as swiftly and efficiently as possible. Now, those of you wishing to visit Miss Grey please wait in front of her room for a nurse to take you in to see her, and those wishing to see Kitty Pryde please follow me," the doctor said, and instantly all the Brotherhood, accompanied by Kurt as well who seemed more worried about her well-being than Jean's, followed him into the generic hospital room silently. The remaining X-Men and the New Mutants followed Professor Xavier quietly into Jean's room, where they could hear her faint voice call to them as she began to wake a bit further.

Lance braced himself for what was to come, hearing only the machines making any sounds at all by her bedside, laboring to keep her alive and functioning, and he shut his eyes as he walked into the brightly lit room before he saw anything, not knowing if he could ever bring himself to open them again and look down upon his fallen angel.


	4. Promises

Lance was barely holding back his tears, unable to even look at her as he stood to the side of the hospital bed.

She was lucid in appearance, pale and covered in sweat from the severe injury her body had been dealt. Her hair was messy and matted, and he could almost imagine her awakening and fussing about it's imperfect condition. Machines surrounded her, almost oppressive in the way they had been arranged around her bedside. A breathing mask had been placed over the base of her face to keep her breathing, an IV strung from her wrist and dancing chaotically through the air until it reached a fluid bag pumping essential medicines into her battered body. The machines monitored her vital signs, her weak and faltering pulse constantly making his own heart skip as each beat threatened to mark her last.

He could still remember the only other time he had seen her in a hospital bed, when her tonsils had needed to be removed a few months earlier. They had become infected and the doctors believe it had been what caused the constant colds that prevented so many dates and school lunches spent together. He could still see her clearly, lying on the stiff bed complaining about the tacky hospital gown and cap she was forced to wear, the generic carnations and gifts that he and the members of the X-Men had showered her with after the surgery, the frightened gleam in her eye. How could she have had any idea she would end up here just weeks later, her life being forced into her by artificial methods.

He gently and fearfully reached forward and grasped her frail wrist, making sure to cradle it softly. Her flesh was cold and thin, and he instinctively wanted to pull away from the death unwelcomingly settling in, but he clung to her and expelled it with a saddened expression. The others were silent, keeping watch over them both as the snowstorm raged outside.

"Hey pretty-Kitty. I'm not sure you can even hear me right now, in fact I'm sure you can't, but I'm going to keep talking anyways. You can't let this beat you Kitty, you can't let your body give in. You're one of the strongest people I've ever seen, standing up to me and the rest of the Brotherhood, and whatever else got in the way over the years," he murmured softly, caressing the top of her hand and wishing more than anything she would respond, even if it was a mere flicker of an eyelid that revealed she was able to sense he was near. He continued, still hoping for her beautiful eyes to open again.

"I wish there had been something I could have done to help you Kitty, anything that could have prevented this. You should have waited out the storm at the mall or gone to a shelter nearby. You remember the time I was driving you home in the winter, when my Jeep slid? You said you never wanted to experience that again. It was like a joke to us then...we never realized just how close we had been to dying I guess," he barely got out, still hearing echoes of her laughter at the grim prospect of getting the annoying dent out of the front of his Jeep, "I'm going to do everything I can to help you, even if it means spending every penny I can scrounge to make sure any hospital bills get paid. Please Kitty, just show me you're listening, that there's hope I won't lose you."

He was crying now, openly without a care if the guys saw him or not. He could feel each of them place a comforting hand on his shoulder, promising there would never be a snide comment made on his weakness, all of them silent as he wept and his grasp upon Kitty's wrist tightened slightly.

If only he had known he wouldn't have allowed her to go. He had been planning to convince her to come to the Brotherhood house earlier in the evening when they had been getting ready for their Christmas celebration. But he had forgotten to phone her in the chaos of getting the boarding house decorated and festive for the holidays, and had instead hoped to get in touch the following day at school. If he had just called her and invited her over, she may not been lying her before him, unconscious with little chance of ever walking, or even waking again. He finally stopped sobbing, tears steadily falling down his face without hindrance.

"Please...just show me you're going to live, or else I don't know if I can..." he barely whispered, leaning on the edge of her bed with his eyes closed and the tears soaking the bed sheets.

Suddenly he felt something, a slight movement, and he opened his eyes once again and looked down where he was still gripping her hand softly, where he had sensed the motion.

He watched as her hand slowly and weakly grasped his own, his eyelids shivering slightly as she turned her head slightly and subsided back into forced slumber.

He smiled slightly, tears still pouring down his face as he knew he would be able to keep his promises.


	5. The Impact of Tragedy

They were still there, the blinding lights, the sounds of both the automobile's horns screeching just before impact. The horrified expressions of the family in the ongoing car, and Jean's screams as she realized she wouldn't be able to get out of the way.

It felt as though she had been trapped in that realm forever, unable to know or tell if she was alive or dead or hovering somewhere in between. She couldn't feel pain, which made her believe she had passed on, but at the same time it was dark, no heavenly light or hellish flames coming to meet her. It was a void, which she eventually came to realize was the state of her own mind.

An eternity seemed to pass, and then some. She wanted so much to just awaken while at the same time knowing she couldn't, knowing she was too weak and battered to do so. Just because she couldn't feel the suffering didn't mean it wasn't there, numbed into a constant feeling of dread and menacing death.

She could hear voices, of Lance and the Brotherhood and her housemates, everyone calling out to her with their worries. But she couldn't answer back, only feel the monotone pressure of someone lightly grasping her wrist, the world like a spiraling drain of darkness with her caught in the centrifuge awaiting judgment.

She wanted so badly to talk to Lance, to show him the adorable gift she had bought for him. Jean had labeled it 'the most ridiculous hat on the face of the earth' but Kitty had felt it was perfect for him. She had purchased it for him at the mall and now it lay mangled in the wreckage of the SUV. She had just wanted to get him something special, but everything…was ruined…

"…Lance…" she barely managed to say. Her throat was throbbing with pain from earlier when a breathing tube had been placed, and she was dehydrated from the loss of blood. But she could feel the vibrancy of Lance's hopes suddenly arise, and that was encouraging for her to attempt to awaken further.

"I'm still here Kitty. The others had to leave because of the hospital's stupid policies, but they said I can stay here with you until your parents get here," Lance whispered to her, and she wanted to nod or show some other sign of the affirmative, but found herself too weak to do so. Her body felt like lifeless matter suspended in a void; she couldn't move her arms or legs at all though she wished she could hand Lance's hand as he held her own.

"Everything is going to be fine Kitty," Lance said. Instantly she knew it wouldn't. She had feeling a bit in her hands, otherwise she wouldn't have been able sense him gently caressing her hand, careful of the IV still stuck into her wrist. It was down in her legs she couldn't sense anything. She tried with all her might to just try and get her toes to wriggle, but there was no response. It was like they had been cut away and she just didn't know it. Hovering within the darkness, she hoped this wasn't the case.

"Tell me…the truth…" she asked quietly, her voice raspy.

Lance was quiet for a moment. He knew what she meant, about how her condition really was. He didn't want to tell her, but the helpless tone in her voice was enough to convince him he owed at least that to her.

"Dr. Peterson…he doesn't think…that…that you'll ever be able to walk again Kitty…" Lance barely got out; admitting it to her was like shooting himself through the gut. He instantly felt ill, but knew that lying to her would have only worked for so long before she discovered the truth. And that would only bring more harm to her already battered body and mind.

Kitty, though she couldn't physically reveal it, felt the same pain as him, only a hundredfold. She wanted to prove what he'd said wrong and attempted with all her might to move her legs. Nothing, no response, no feeling whatsoever. It was like her entire lower body had been severed cleanly from her while she had slept. Now only numbed pain remained, and she felt her heart rapidly beat as the terror sank in.

"Don't worry Kitty, I'm going to do everything I can to help. There still is a chance that physical therapy will help you get feeling back in your legs, and I'll do whatever it takes to see that happen. But you can't give up, you've never been one to give in to anything," Lance said weakly. He knew his words would be flooded away by the waves of fear she had to be experiencing. Her chest was rising and falling at an alarming rate; her distraught body probably couldn't handle the news without insurmountable stress, but as he caressed her hand gently and continued to look down at her caringly, she began to calm a bit.

Just…" Kitty managed to say weakly, and instantly Lance was listening with every fiber of his being. It was horrible seeing her this way, but seeing her move and speak, no matter how weakly, was still a sign that she hadn't fallen prey to her injuries.

"What is it Kitty?" Lance said, once again stroking her hand gently though he questioned if she was able to feel it now or not. The warmth of someone else nearby seemed to be giving her comfort, and he drew closer to ensure she relaxed further and was able to continue.

"Just…promise me…" she said next, progressing through the sentence slowly since it took a veritable amount of strength. "Just promise me…that no matter…what…you'll be with me…"

Lance didn't hesitate for a second before he answered. "I promise."


End file.
